Pritzker family at odds over biz strategy

Chicago Business News - Members of the billionaire Pritzker family have agreed to split up the estimated $15-billion family fortune, possibly leading to a public offering by hotelier Hyatt Corp. and a sell off of the privately held Marmon Group.

But the decision isn’t unanimous and is one of the reasons behind a lawsuit recently brought by one of the grandchildren of the late patriarch Jay Pritzker.

“Our strategy contemplates both long-term reinvestment in our existing businesses and creating liquidity for all family members,” said a statement issued late Tuesday by 11 family members.

A family spokesman, however, confirmed that the agreement, reached last year, did not include input from the two youngest grandchildren. One of them—18-year-old Liesel Pritzker—sued her father and other relatives last week, alleging they conspired to reduce her inheritance by more than $1 billion.

The Pritzker spokesman said both sides have agreed to a standstill. “The common plan is to do nothing for 60 days,” he said. A spokesman for Ms. Pritzker and her mother Irene said, “I doubt if they’re going to want to say anything.”

The process of “creating liquidity” means distributing common family assets among the grandchildren of the late Jay Pritzker and his nephew, Nicholas. Distributing the biggest chunks of the family holdings—Hyatt and Marmon—may require a public offering (in the case of the hotel chain) or liquidation (in the case of industrial-oriented Marmon).

Central to the family dispute is the Pritzker method of treating Nicholas, 57, and the eldest 10 grandchildren of Jay, ranging in age from 52 to 37, as members of one generation and Liesel and her 20-year-old brother, Matthew, as another generation, in effect creating two sets of claims on the inheritance. As members of the younger generation, Liesel and Matthew's claims would be fulfilled after those of Nicholas and the 10 grandchidren.

“That’s precisely it,” says the family spokesman, pointing out that Liesel and Matthew—offspring of a second marriage by their father, Robert—are younger than some of their cousins’ children.

Matthew was neither a party to the lawsuit, nor a signer of the statement issued by the family.

New Class of Business Travelers

By Joe Sharkey -  New York Times

Atching the passing scene at Denver International Airport, David Mosteller says he is sorry to see a remarkable era in business travel fading away.

"You used to see so many United Airlines business fliers here," said Mr. Mosteller, the president of Skyport Companies, which operates 12 restaurants and fast-food outlets in the airport, a sprawling United hub.

"You know: 41 years old, $70,000-plus a year, well dressed, with expense account. The ones who eat at Wolfgang Puck Express, not Taco Bell," he said.

Well heeled on corporate travel budgets that were geared to paying business fares that often were seven times the cost of leisure fares, this breed of passenger has been in decline at all domestic airports since the economy soured early last year.

But in the boom times, some hub airports chose to rely more than others on the top-drawer business-travel market represented by full-fare carriers. Pittsburgh International, where US Airways has 75 percent of the flights, is one example. And Denver, where United has about two-thirds of the flights, is a better one.

Like most airport industry executives, Mr. Mosteller didn't need United Airlines skulking into bankruptcy court to tell him that things will never be as they were in the highflying boom days of the late 1990's.

Gradually, with many of the major airlines in a free fall, an understanding is dawning that much domestic air travel in the future is more likely to resemble a high-speed version of urban commuter bus service.

Knowing that doesn't make it any easier for those who bet on United.

Though several major competitors, including Continental, have hinted that they're considering adding some flights in Denver to pick off some of United's business-travel market share there, it's apparent that airports like Denver International are more likely to reflect the austerity of the discount carriers more than the free-spending élan of the classic United road warrior.

"I see the other airlines, the Deltas, Americans, Continentals, Northwests, bunkering down at their primary hubs" and not making any big, costly moves into Denver, Mr. Mosteller said. "Instead, I would expect you'll see the lower-cost airlines trying to fill some of the slots" that United will eventually vacate as it reduces its flights in months to come.

"Already, we're starting to miss the attitude the United business traveler conveyed," he said. "They were the mainstay of Denver International Airport, the ones the waitresses and bartenders all knew by name as they passed through once or twice a week, regular as clockwork."

Now, they are not hubbing through Denver anymore, he said. "I'm not playing a violin here because the whole economy is hurting," he added. "Still, it's sad to see them being replaced by a different crowd" — the discount travelers looking for a value meal and willing to take an airborne bus.

Of course, as Willie Nelson may or may not have said, there ain't nothing wrong with a nice bus. In focusing intensely on United and the problems of the status-heavy major airlines, it is easy to neglect the dawn of the era represented by the discount airlines like Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Air and America West.

Let's consider America West, which gets far less attention than Southwest and JetBlue. Based in Phoenix, it is now the eighth-largest domestic airline, with 800 daily flights, compared with United's nearly 1,800. Since it was founded in 1983, America West has been in and out of bankruptcy twice.

Last December, it was the first airline to apply successfully for a loan guarantee from the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board, the agency that derisively rejected United's application last week.

America West, which reported a $31 million loss in the third quarter of 2002, compared with United's loss of $889 million, is the airline that stunned the industry early this year when it unilaterally cut business fares across the board.

Major airlines responded by selectively reducing fares on competing routes, and several have since tinkered with business-fare cuts in selected markets. But to date, America West is the only big airline to have simplified and reduced all business fares — an action that corporate travel managers and airline consumer experts insist is necessary for the major carriers to create a rational air travel system in which carriers can operate profitably.

Ron Cole, America West's vice president for sales, added that it had no plan to move aggressively onto any turf vacated by United at Denver.

Instead, America West's long-term strategy is to expand its own underdeveloped hub in Phoenix while slowly building national connecting routes from other regional airports. Recently, it expanded service to and from Pittsburgh; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Washington-Dulles; Toronto; and Medford, Ore.

Pittsburgh, of course, is a fortress hub of US Airways, which entered bankruptcy proceedings in August after making major cutbacks in routes and staffing. But Mr. Cole said the US Air bankruptcy filing wasn't the reason that America West had expanded service there.

Instead, he said, "we noted that it was a very high-fare environment, dominated by one carrier."

He added, "Given our new business-friendly fare structure, and comparing that to the high-fare environment, we said, `Here is a great opportunity — how could we not go in?' "

Anyone predicting the future outlines of the air travel industry needs to keep looking at Southwest, JetBlue and the other prominent discount carriers. But I'd also keep an eye on America West, which appears to be paying more attention than the others to what the business-travel market insists it needs.
"We've got our fleet pretty well utilized at this point, and we don't have unlimited opportunities going into next year," Mr. Cole said. "But we've got a few more cities in our sights."

World Tourism Organization stresses the importance of co-operation with the European Union

AsiaTravelTips.com  -  The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization Mr. Francesco Frangialli, called today for an intensified co-operation with the European Union and its member states. Addressing the European Tourism Forum in Brussels, Mr. Frangialli presented the current tourism situation in the world in general and in Europe in particular, emphasizing the threat of terrorism and major structural changes, while another WTO representative, Mr. Geoffrey Lipman, called the EU to support the Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) project.

"At a time when the World Tourism Organization itself is becoming increasingly visible to the international community and has embarked on conversion into a specialized agency of the United Nations, I would like to say that it is ready and willing to enhance its cooperation with the European Union and its member states," said Mr. Frangialli.

In the past two years considerable progress was reached in two main areas, defined by the two organizations as complementary. The WTO and the European Union have pooled their resources and undertaken direct action to fight against child sex tourism. Initially an agreement was signed by the WTO and the Tourism Unit of the Enterprise Directorate-General in December 2000. This was followed by a second agreement concluded in April 2002, this time with the EuropeAid Cooperation Office, and more specifically with its Democracy and Human Rights Unit. In all the European Union has spent two million euros funding various interactive projects coordinated by the WTO and carried out in association with four partners, namely, the ECPAT/Respect Group, the Family and Child Care Centre, the International Federation of Journalists, and the International Federation "Terre des Hommes".

The second area of cooperation is gaining an overview of tourism macroeconomics using the national accounts as a technical basis. In cooperation with Eurostat, the OECD, and the WTTC, the World Tourism Organization has prepared the Tourism Satellite Account project. The common concepts, classifications and methods prepared by WTO were approved by the Statistical Commission of the United Nations in June 2002.

"I am pleased that the European Union, both collectively and at the level of individual members, has become involved in the work of preparing satellite accounts based on methodology prepared by WTO. The Council's decision issued in May under the Presidency of Spain signified a definite step forward," Mr. Frangialli stressed.

WTO Secretary-General also analyzed the increasing frequency of terrorist attacks, which have directly targeted tourists in Djerba, Tunisia in April; in Bali, Indonesia in October; in Santa Marta, Colombia, in November; and most recently, in Mombassa, Kenya, just barely two weeks ago now. The Bali bombing was the most serious attack on foreign visitors in the history of world tourism.

"These factors have worsened the climate of fear and uncertainty among travellers and augmented the impression that no destination anywhere in the world is completely safe any longer. If this perception becomes ingrained in the minds of potential travel consumers, it would give serious cause for concern about the future:  the crisis, by definition temporary, would give way to a state of permanent danger in which attacks aimed at innocent visitors who are targeted in conflicts that have nothing to do with them may occur anywhere at any time", underlined Mr. Frangialli.

The repercussions of acts of terrorism are both direct and indirect: direct insofar as they obliterate the desire to travel and indirect insofar as they contribute to delaying the awaited economic recovery, thereby lowering demand as a whole, including demand for travel.

On the supply side, these same factors have led to higher security and insurance costs, which penalizes the tourism industry and not just airlines and airports. At the same time, increased volatility in the financial markets contributes to the unfavourable overall climate.

"However," continued Mr. Frangialli, "let us not draw mistaken conclusions from this series of difficulties. Taken as a whole, the data do not necessarily point to a lasting slump in international tourism activity, in that potential demand for travel remains strong and the need to travel does not contract. WTO will be publishing its initial estimates a month from now, but it is far from certain that 2002 will close with negative growth in arrivals or even receipts."

Speaking about Europe's dominance in the world's tourism industry, Mr. Frangialli stated that the fact that Europe is continuing to lose market share in terms of both financial and physical flows should not be disregarded. Its share of receipts is gradually falling, and in future Europe will only be taking in a little less than 58 per cent of total arrivals worldwide. "Europe has lost about 7 per cent of world market share over a period of 20 years. According to WTO's preliminary forecasts, unless it reacts vigorously, Europe will, by 2020, account for no more than 46 per cent of the total," Mr. Frangialli said. "Clearly, this development does not in the main reflect a specific decline but rather the globalization of tourism.

Mr. Geoffrey Lipman, advisor to the WTO Secretary General on trade and services, raised voice about Europe's global leadership responsibilities towards the world's major problem of poverty elimination. Wisely developed tourism is the world's poorest countries' biggest collective development and social equality tool. It generates directly and indirectly a higher quantity of GDP, jobs and investment than most other economic activities.

Mr. Lipman firstly urged the European and national travel and tourism strategies to reflect a positive support for the external dimension and accord it a high priority. "It is important for us as Europeans and as global citizens," Mr. Lipman said. Secondly he called for bringing to individual and collective attention the ST-EP project, launched in Johannesburg by WTO as the global tourism leader and UNCTAD as the UN body responsible for the world's poorest countries. 

"ST-EP seeks to link Sustainable Tourism and Elimination of Poverty. It will attract funding, from non traditional tourism related sources, stimulate new research into linkages between tourism and poverty and seed fund model projects for SME's and micro-enterprises in poorer countries. Thereby linking our own Global Code of Tourism Ethics with the UN Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015."

Source:  AsiaTravelTips.com  

In Australia, Asian Hotel Investors Return, but Domestic Owners Dominate

According to the results of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ annual Top Owner survey, Australian hotel investors and owner/operators continue to dominate the ownership of tourist accommodation in Australia.  However, Asian investors have launched a challenge, accounting for 80% of major sales transacted so far this year. 

The results of the survey, which spans 132 major owners, 393 establishments and over 66,500 rooms across Australia, show that 59% of Australia’s tourist accommodation is owned by local investors.  The survey results will be published as part of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ Digest Australia, 2002/03 Edition, to be released this month. 

The results demonstrate only one positional change since last year’s survey.  United Overseas Land has exited the list through the sale of the Landmark Parkroyal in late 2001, and their place has been taken by Travelodge, through the opening of their 275 room property in Southbank, Melbourne. 

The now de-listed Tourism Asset Holdings continues to dominate the ownership of hotels in Australia, with 5,104 rooms, followed by Grand Hotel Group and despite the sale of two properties during 2002, Thakral Holdings has maintained its position as the 3rd largest owner in Australia. 

“The interesting fact is that the composition of the Top Owners remains relatively unchanged despite a spate of significant hotel transactions during 2002,” said Mr Geordie Clark, Executive Vice President, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.  “This demonstrates that new investors are entering the hotel market, in particular, local developers and Asian hotel investors.” 

“As predicted last year, the perception that many Australian hotel markets are at the bottom of the hotel cycle combined with the value of the Australian dollar has resulted in renewed enthusiasm from overseas investors, particularly from Asia,” said Mr Clark.  Looking at the major hotel sales of 2002, Asian investors accounted for 80.3% of all hotel purchases, but representing only 59.2% of the vendors. 

The value of hotel sales for the eleven months to November 2002 represent a 37.6% increase compared to the same period of the previous year.  “And, with one month remaining we anticipate a further $150 million in sales to bring the annual total to a robust $844.0 million for the year,” said Mr Clark. 

Geordie Clark sees a continuation of transaction activity in 2003 as international buyers try to secure hotels at the bottom of the cycle particularly in Sydney and Brisbane.  “We expect Asian investors to again dominate the purchases,” said Mr Clark. 
-

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Digest Australia 2002/03 Edition, provides the latest analysis and forecasts for the country’s five major hotel markets.  The Digest features an economic report card, tourism market examination, future supply tables and an analysis of investment and management trends.

Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) is the world’s leading real estate services and investment management firm, operating across more than 100 key markets on five continents.

www.joneslanglasallehotels.com

Singapore: Hotel school -  one small step for Yeo, but one big step for S'pore

By Yeoh Siew Hoon  TravelWeeklyEast.com

From tourism promoter to educator – Yeo Khee Leng made the transition from chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board to chief executive officer of the Hotel Management School International last month. Not that he is new to education. In fact, he says, it’s in his blood. His first job was with the Ministry of Education and when he was with the National Computer Board, his role included manpower development in the IT industry. Yeo talks to Yeoh Siew Hoon about his time spearheading Singapore tourism and his current charge of growing talent for the industry.

Q: It must be a good time to leave with tourism being battered on all fronts?

Yeo: I was in the seat for five years – that’s quite a long time to be in the driving seat.

What’s happening now, the challenges facing tourism – well, it’s a new world, very different from three years ago when it was the haze and simple economics. Now there are so many unknown factors.

But tourism is resilient – there are always ups and downs. There’s always room to move – from market A to market B. You can choose where to put your resources.

Q: So perhaps the timing of your departure is a blessing in disguise because times are so tough?

Yeo: Don’t forget that when I came in, it was 1998, we were in recession and arrivals were down 13 percent. So that was tough too. We then created the Millennia Mania marketing campaign and saw arrivals grow by 11 percent in 2000 over 1999. We came up with a myriad of marketing activities – STB is a strong marketing organisation – but there was a lot of backroom work as well.

Q: But how do you market tourism in a climate of pervasive terrorism?

Yeo: Terrorism is a problem – but it’s not pervasive. We have to give ourselves time to tackle the issue. Since it is a security issue, let the security people tackle it. People’s confidence will only be built up when they see actions and elimination of incidents such as Bali. When they can feel there is proactive action to address safety and security.

Tourism needs good experiences and fun – it’s about the basic notion of being able to enjoy yourself safely. That is being threatened and that has to be addressed.

Tourism doesn’t grind to a halt. Every place still has its relevance to different types of travellers – some travel out of need. Tourism players should know what their customers are looking for.

Q: If you were chief executive of STB still, what would you do?

Yeo: I’d still go for markets that Singapore is relevant to.

Even within markets which may not be okay, there are still segments within it – you have to give them confidence. You need to service existing markets because you still need the business.

When dealing with groups, you need to give people confidence by having processes that make them feel they are safe and that you are paying attention to security matters.

Q: But the Bali incident is bound to impact on Singapore, surely?

Yeo: Yes, unfortunately, because our positioning as a stopover will be impacted. But we will take it in our stride. What we can control we should and we should take nothing for granted, especially safety and security. We do take it very seriously.

Q: What were the highlights of your five years as chief of STB?

Yeo: There were many, but I take great personal satisfaction at having led the team with the Millennia Mania programme. We had non-stop activities for 15 months; that means no rest. This was backed up by an aggressive campaign such as a daily lucky draw. It helped us overcome a bad period after the financial crisis.

Q: Asian tourism has had its share of crises these past years.

Yeo: We take them in our stride. Things happen around you, you can’t control them but you can control what you do with your resources and your team. You must develop different scenarios so you are better prepared to execute a change of plan.

To me, this crisis is a crisis of confidence – a loss of confidence of major proportions. The way to tackle it is to go back to basics. Allow countries to sort their problems out. Let security people do what they have to do. Life will go on but understand the consumer wants to see good security in places.

Q: Do you envy the new chief executive his job of marketing tourism in this new environment?

Yeo: It’s rather challenging but he’s definitely up to it. Every few years, one should renew leadership.

Q: Your new role now – it’s part of Singapore’s grand plan to position itself as a regional educational hub.

Yeo: Educational services has been identified as one of the main service sectors that Singapore can take advantage of. The plan is to attract world class universities to Singapore so that it becomes a centre of excellence in education.

Our school fits nicely into that plan.

Q: What are your plans?

Yeo: We are talking to a few world class institutions to form partnerships. Our plan is to have it up and running in a year’s time. We plan a steady intake of 100 a year in our two-year Masters programme and another 100 in executive education programmes.

Singapore has a variety of tourism schools. What we have to get better at is marketing them. We need to promote the education services of Singapore and sell the product like the British Council does for the UK. This is one of the areas STB is looking at.

Within the field of tourism education, more can be done to educate our young in service levels – there is room for improvement. Showing them a good career path will attract better quality people.

EHL to work with the hospitality Industry in the year ahead to rapidly improve human resource management challenges

Recognition and recruitment of talent, development and retention are seen by the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), the leading international learning institution for hospitality management, to be a major concern for the hospitality industry in the year ahead and made more challenging by the continuing economic climate.

The career paths of graduates of leading hospitality management schools reveal a sobering picture.  Only a little more than half of the graduates remain in the hospitality industry. Of those who leave, almost half leave the business within the first five years after their graduation.

"Whichever incentives the hospitality industry is using to attract and retain good people are just not working well enough," said Ruud Reuland, General Director, EHL.  "We want to see that more of our talented graduates are able to start and pursue a promising career in the hospitality industry.  Attracting and retaining talent is vital for the success of the hospitality industry in the coming years.  Competition is becoming fiercer for qualified work force, not only within the hospitality industry but also increasingly with other service industries and possibly against more attractive employment packages."

EHL will continue during 2003 in its efforts to create and maintain an effective platform of dialogue between the international hospitality industry, the hospitality schools and its students with the focus on this challenge.  An example is the annual human resources strategy conference held at EHL in May each year and attended by senior HR decision-makers in some of the leading hospitality companies in Europe.

EHL is also benchmarking the competitiveness of the hospitality industry with other industries and will contribute to closing the gap between the expectations of the young generation of talented graduates and the opportunities in the hospitality industry.

About EHL

The Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne is a leading international business school for the hospitality industry.  It is the only hospitality school in Switzerland with HES (Haute Ecole Spécialisée / ‘University of Applied Sciences’) accreditation from the Swiss authorities.  The School offers an International Hospitality Management degree in French or English, both accredited as an HES degree in Switzerland and as a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc.) by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) in the USA.

Since October 2001, EHL has also offered a Master in Hospitality Administration (MHA) programme.  Other offerings within the School include the consultancy services of the Lausanne Hospitality Consulting division and the research practice of the Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research.

EHL is a private, non-profit foundation and as such reinvests all profits solely into its activities and development.

For further information visit EHL’s website:   http://www.ehl.ch/

Asian tourism starts to recover

Christmas holiday bookings rise, despite the terrorist threat

Herald Tribune  -  Six Continents PLC, Sol Melia SA and other hotels across Southeast Asia say bookings are picking up as tourists start to set aside worries about terrorism and prepare for Christmas breaks.

Even in Bali, site of bomb attacks that killed at least 190 people almost two months ago, about half the hotel rooms along the Kuta beach strip are full in the run-up to the holidays, operators say. That is up from about 5 percent two weeks after the Oct. 12 blasts.

"I thought Bali was going to take two years to recover on Oct. 13," said Richard Hartman, Asia Pacific managing director at Six Continents, which operates the Bali Inter-Continental. "I'm beginning to see renewed interest in bookings, which frankly, I didn't think was going happen for several more months."

Beaches from the Thai resort island of Phuket to Langkawi island in Malaysia are getting busier. The revival comes even though the United States, Australia and other countries have warned their citizens about the risks of visiting the region's tourism hubs.

"We think destinations like Phuket will pick up again very soon," said Miguel Ko, Asia Pacific president of Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide Inc.

To be sure, the tourism recovery remains fragile.

Last month's bombing of a hotel in Kenya that killed 10 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists was the latest incident to make people wary of traveling. And even without further attacks in Southeast Asia, it will take at least six months before Bali's tourist arrivals reach levels seen before Oct. 12, hotel operators say.

Some people are "still reluctant to travel to Bali, which was once a popular spot with our customers," said China Nishihara, spokeswoman at JALPAK, a unit of Japan Airlines System Corp. that arranges overseas tours.

At Sol Melia's Bali location, few western European tourists are returning. The hotel is now filled with Russians and Asian travelers, said the resort's general manager, Ricardo Casteneda. "We're doing much better than we did in the weeks after the blast, but it's going to take some time before more visitors come back," he said.

Last month, Canada and Australia closed their embassies in Manila and advised citizens to postpone travel to the Philippines after both countries received threats of terrorist attacks.

Part of the tourism rebound has been fueled by discounting. Melia in Bali managed to fill 200 of its 500 rooms with a joint promotion with Singapore Airlines Ltd., at rates as low as $162, half the usual cost. Most large hotels need about 40 percent occupancy to break even.

The Singapore Airlines Bali promotion, which also included hotels such as Radisson, attracted more than 10,000 bookings in 10 days, the carrier said, prompting it to restore its fourth daily flight to Bali from Singapore. The airline cut that flight in November after traffic dropped following the bomb blast. The promotion, which initially ended Dec. 3, was extended to Dec. 20.

The carrier, Asia's third-largest by sales, also said bookings rose for flights to resort destinations such as Phuket and Krabi in Thailand, and Langkawi and Penang in Malaysia.

"People are still looking at Bali as a destination," said Huang Cheng Eng, executive vice president of marketing at Singapore Airlines. "If things return back to normal and there are no surprising events, people may find it's OK to go back."

Hotels are also trying to drum up domestic demand. Bali's Radisson Hotel will be 60 percent occupied during Christmas week, thanks in part to Indonesians snapping up reservations at promotional rates, said Ajani Rahadiany, marketing service coordinator.

The hotel's 340,000 rupiah ($38) daily rates - less than half the $85 standard charge - are only open to Indonesian citizens and permanent residents. Indonesians now make up 88 percent of visitors, compared with 40 percent before the bomb blast, Rahadiany said.

"The thing we should always remember is that people do get on with their lives relatively quickly even when there are awful shocks like Bali," said Jim Walker, chief economist at CLSA Ltd. "The medium-term and longer-term effects on regional tourism are probably going to be very minimal - we'll probably see a return of relatively normal levels of tourist activity even by this time next year."

India: Govt decides to sell off another 12 hotels

Sify News -  The Government will privatise another 12 hotels as part of its ongoing disinvestment programme, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said Monday.

While five of the hotels are wholly owned by the Government, seven are joint ventures, the minister said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The minister said that so far 19 hotels had been disinvested and Rs 4.4 billion rupees realised from the sales.

The Government has so far only managed to raise Rs 50 billion from privatisation in the current year against a targeted Rs 120 billion.

The privatisation is part of a programme to trim the Goverment's budget deficit to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year ending March 2003.

Hotel occupancy picks up in Bali

(Xinhua) --The hotel occupancy in Bali picked up to 40 percent in the first week of December following a heavy blow suffered after the bloody bombings in mid-October.

The slow revival was largely attributed to the longer holiday season this year, starting earlier this month, the daily Jakarta Post reported here Wednesday.

Chairperson of the Indonesian Hotel and Restrauant Association (PHRI) Yanti Sukamdani said that since the holiday season would last until after the New Year's celebrations, there was still a good chance for the occupancy rate to further go up.

"Hotel bookings have been on the rise since early this month, and it tends to keep rising now that plenty of hotels have been fully-booked ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations," Yanti said.

Although visitors and local businessmen on the tourist resort estimated that the hotel occupancy rates were still low, the PHRI chief remained optimistic that the hotel occupancy rate would average around 60 percent for all of December.

Within two weeks following the bloody explosion in Bali, the hotel occupancy rate dropped to single digit as compared to over 70 percent prior to the blasts on October 12. The terror blasts killed about 190 people, mostly foreign tourists.

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